It’s good to see the government exhibiting some common sense in recognising that public data is a public good. Like any disruptive innovation, the tangible outcomes of data.gov.uk are impossible to predict, which is why it’s exciting for geeks and somewhat frightening for the government. For the time being, I’d remain wary of the suggestion that this represents any substantive constitutional change. The question is: if someone did find a way of exploiting this in a politically transformative or decentralising sense, how would the government then respond?
Will Davies, research fellow, Said Business School
Data is the lifeblood of accountability and reform, so it’s great to see this new site. Too much government data is hard to find. I hope this site changes that.
Conor Ryan
This is an exciting development that supports our view in the 2020 Public Services Trust that smarter use of data could drive major improvements to services. This is our data, capturing aspects of our lives; and it is only right that it should be opened up to all of us for scrutiny, challenge and learning. However, open data is just half the story. Online technologies have the potential to change the way we think about public services, how they can be delivered, and how we interact with them and government more broadly.
Ashish Prashar, 2020 Public Services Trust